50 Movies for 50 States Part Two: The `80s — #18 – Maine, Film – High Frequency (Qualcuno in ascolto)

High Frequency (1988), produced by Cinecitta, Reteitalia and Union P.N., distributed in the U.S. by Forum Home Video, directed by Faliero Rosati, written by Vincenzo Cerami, Franco Ferrini and Faliero Rosati, with Vincent Spano, Oliver Benny, Anne Canovas and David Brandon, cinematography by Pasqualino De Santis, original music by Pino Donaggio, edited by Anna Rosa Napoli, filmed in Vinalhaven, Maine

It was not easy finding a copy of this movie. Seriously.

I’d be as bold as to say you’ve never heard of the Italian-made thriller High Frequency (Qualcuno in ascolto) although I have a feeling many of the people reading this post came across it after specifically searching for the movie on the web. If you’re one of those people, you probably saw it on cable late one night and wondered “what *was* that weird movie about the old guy and the little kid who sit around watching this lady on a camera hidden in an apartment?”

Congratulations. You’ve reached maybe like the only review of High Frequency on the web. Also, good for you. I’m certain that you have fond memories of it. The impression I get from the user reviews on IMDb is that most people who saw this movie in the late 1980s enjoyed it.

I’d never heard of High Frequency — Hell, I’ve rarely heard of any of the movies I’ve watched for this project prior to seeking them out — but I did find the plot intriguing enough to want to watch it. You may find it intriguing as well.

The basic story is this: A boy living on an isolated island off of Maine (Danny) befriends an older man (Peter) stationed at a relay station in the Alps, whom he meets randomly over a shortwave radio. The two hit it off immediately, as it turns out they have some things in common. Mostly, they’re both pretty lonely. Peter, who works alone at the station in the Alps, is basically cut off from the outside world — his only companion is a pet rabbit, Pierre. Danny lives alone with his mother. His father went “missing at sea” years ago, thus explaining his obsession with the shortwave radio — he’s hoping to contact his father one day. It becomes clear pretty early on that Danny sees Peter as a surrogate father figure.

When a strange feed shows up on one of the satellite sources that Peter is monitoring, THE PLOT THICKENS. The feed appears to be streamed from a hidden camera in the room of someone’s home. Two men enter the room and, after a brief conversation, one of the men shoots the other. Peter thinks momentarily that perhaps he’s watching a movie, but after hours of watching this stationary camera, starts to believe he may have just inadvertently witnessed a murder.

Peter tells Danny about what he saw and the two begin to work together to try and figure out the location of the camera. After getting rid of the victim’s body, the shooter has remained on the scene of the crime and has now been joined by a woman. Peter and Danny are concerned that the shooter may target the woman next.

THIS woman

Peter and Danny eventually discover … wait. You didn’t think I was going to tell you any more did you? Part of the fun of High Frequency is watching the mystery unravel.

You’re going to need a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief to enjoy High Frequency. Without that, you’re going to be wondering the whole time why Peter and Danny didn’t just immediately go to the police — or why Peter is even trusting a kid to help him solve a murder in the first place. There’s also a pretty ridiculous deus ex machine ending that might leave you scratching your head, although if you watch enough Italian cinema, you’ll just chalk it up to the type of wackiness that usually comes along with that country’s cinematic output. Viva Italia! A fun little film. A hidden gem. What ever you want to call it.

The island off the coast of Maine where High Frequency was filmed worked well in complementing Danny’s sense of loneliness. It’s a beautiful location. You can smell the brine. SMELL IT. Makes me want to eat chowder.

It’s hard to believe this movie isn’t Canadian, I mean … look at that haircut.

Most of this review I wrote months ago. That was before I got a job. My job for the first two years of Critical Masses’ existence was taking care of a baby. A baby that liked to sleep — those types of babies are rare, I’m told. It provided me a lot of time to write. Now I have a “real” job again and am going to try and keep this going. We will see…

Do you care about this personal stuff? Do you want to hear more? Should I stick to movies? My life isn’t that interesting.

Apparently High Frequency is on YouTube now. But it’s in Italian. If you speak Italian, check it out.

9 responses to “50 Movies for 50 States Part Two: The `80s — #18 – Maine, Film – High Frequency (Qualcuno in ascolto)”

Cool! Everything you said in the first paragraph was spot on and so true in my case. And yes, this is the only place I could find a review of it. And yes, i did find the parted out foreign language (Spanish?) version on Youtube.

The reason I was looking for this flick is that I’m on HAM radio right now and some older dudes were talking about how there aren’t any good HAM radio movies. I remembered hearing about Frequency starring Dennis Quaid, but someone mentioned this one, “High Frequency” which I had never heard of, hence the search. Well, looks like I either have to find a copy or watch it in Spanish, which is a language I don’t know. Since the movie deals with speaking over the radio, it would help if I knew the language. ;) Oh well, thanks for the funny write-up here late at night as I scour the web in search of “High Frequency” while on the HAM radio here in Tokyo.

Thanks for the kind words. If you can’t find a copy of this film, I may be able to hook you up. It’s way out of print, so you’ll probably have a tough time getting your hands on a legit copy. Email me at mattthereporter@gmail.com if you’re interested.

Watched the Italian (not Spanish like I first assumed) version on Youtube. Even though I don’t know Italian, it kept me interested. That’s pretty good! Helped maybe that it was after midnight and I was in that kind of mood. I still have an old copy of “Solaris” in the original Russian that I watch from time to time. Some movies work so well in the foreign language you don’t need to understand every word. ;)

I am just uploading this movie on youtube in english language version. This was really hard to find, but if youtube won’t delete this for some copyright or whatever reasons, it will be available as “High Frequency / Qualcuno in Ascolto / 1988 English / Full movie / Ham Radio”, so you may search for it on youtube soon.

Thanks for the link! Hopefully it’ll survive on YouTube for a while. I actually now own a copy of this movie on VHS.

High Frequency is a cool and obscure little flick. I think a lot of people saw it when they were younger and have good memories of it, which is how they wind up here. Can I ask you how you found this Web site? Did we show up in Google or something?

Yes, I was searching for any information on this movie on the web, and google led me here. I saw this movie as a kid/teenager in early 90s, just when my radio hobby began. I wasn’t licensed ham then, though. Now I am, and still have good memories with this movie, but honestly watching it now I am not as thrilled as I was back then ;)